Cal vs. Pitino in the Battle of Christian Worldviews

There has been a debate going on this week between our state’s two most public figures over the use of social media. Pitino hates it, and Calipari loves it.

Here is a screen shot of the rundown from Kentucky Sports Radio…

This perfectly illustrates the two different ways Christians have historically chosen to engage the world.

Pitino sounds like good ol’ Christian fundamentalism, and at first, it seems like a noble position. After all, social media is wreaking havoc on our society, and we are witnessing the downfall of the most basic human function, relationships. Application? Social media is evil, it poisons the mind, stay away from it. This posture of protest is the strategy of fundamentalism, and I think this is what comes to mind when most people think of evangelical Christians.

But the strategy we see in Scripture and modeled by Jesus himself is something different, and Calipari is unwittingly exemplifying it. Even though Facebook and Twitter are potentially dangerous and can be used wrongly, they are still good things meant to be enjoyed rightly and used for the causes of good. This Christian strategy sees the world as fundamentally in need of redemption rather than condemnation. In this case, Christians are called to redeem social media by demonstrating to the world its proper use. It seems this is Calipari goal. It would be much easier for him to tell his players, “Twitter is evil; don’t use twitter.” But instead, he is “discipling” his players how to use a good thing rightly, and how to avoid its potential dangers.

So there you have it. Even in the battle of Christian worldviews, Cal beats Pitino.